Apple's bespoke maps app for iOS6 will face challenges

In fact, plenty of third-party iOS apps offer features you won't
find in the Maps app built into iPhones and iPads. Even more
damaging for Apple: The Maps app built into Android has offered
turn-by-turn navigation for quite some time, but Apple never
implemented the feature -- despite the fact that it's always used
Google Maps for its back-end.

So when Apple announced Monday that iOS 6 would include a new Maps app
built from the ground up by Cupertino's finest, the Apple faithful
applauded. In short: Google's out, and Apple's going to directly
control its own mapping future.

It all sounds great on paper, and it's high time that Apple
modernised its Maps offering. But the company is still a late
entrant to a mapping space that's rich with established players.
Apple has a lot of catching up to do, and there are going to be
growing pains.

"Mapping is not easy," Gartner analyst Brian Blau told Wired.
"Mapping technology is inherently difficult to do. The data sets
are very large, and building in directions accurately is difficult,
as are things like implementing traffic, and points of interest --
especially with GPS not being especially accurate."

Monday's iOS 6 announcement included a demo of turn-by-turn
navigation. It was an impressive spectacle, but it also provoked a
question: Why didn't Apple integrate turn-by-turn much, much
sooner? A look back in history provides answers.

When iOS first launched in the iPhone in 2007, Apple embraced
Google Maps as its mapping back-end. But over the years, rivalry between the tech giants increased to a fever
pitch. So it's likely that Apple decided some years ago to
eventually abandon Google Maps, and create its own platform. And
because Apple knew it was eventually going to drop Google as its
back-end, there was no point in pushing further innovation or
integration with the system doomed to a limited lifespan.

As a result, turn-by-turn was never introduced in iOS, though
users could tap into expensive third-party apps for the same
support.

It's now quite obvious that Apple's been building its own
mapping platform for quite some time. Over the past three years,
the company has acquired several different mapping-related startups like Placebase,
Poly9, and C3 Technologies. The latter likely provides the brains
behind Maps' new 3D Flyover feature.

But having a team doesn't matter if you don't have a robust data
set of maps to work with. "If you don't own a map, you have to go
out and license one. That's a difficult process," Waze CEO Noam
Bardin told Wired. Google decided eight years ago to invest
millions upon millions in its mission to map and photograph the roadways of the world.
But Apple hasn't invested in mapping for anywhere near eight years,
and its acquisition and partnership options have been limited.

Apple couldn't tap Google for help, because Google owns
Android. Navteq would
have made a good partner, but it's owned by Nokia, so Microsoft gets to take advantage of all those maps for
Windows Phone. This left TomTom as the primary source for Apple's
bespoke mapping platform.

"Apple has a big hurdle to jump over here. Mapping products from
other companies are fairly advanced and have been around for a long
time," Gartner analyst Brian Blau told Wired. Indeed, Apple's
competitors have years of experience building maps not only for the
browser and desktop, but mobile as well. Google, for example, now
covers 26 million miles of road globally in 187 countries.

Contrast this with TomTom, which has been around since 1991, and
covers less territory: approximately 22.4 million navigable miles
in 109 countries.

"TomTom has the lowest-quality maps in the US," Bardin said. And
Blau agreed: "I've tried out all the mapping products over the past
couple of years, and I would tend to agree that [TomTom]'s products
aren't top of class."

According to legal notices in the iOS 6 beta, Waze is providing
crowd-sourced traffic and mapping data to Apple for its new Maps
app, along with a handful of other smaller providers. These small
partnerships are helpful, but Apple is anticipating problems with
Maps, and has accounted for it: "If you look at the iOS 6 [beta]
map, it has a button to inform them about a map problem," Bardin
said.

Some of these problems might include missing references to new
roads, misnamed roads, and routing changes that were never updated
-- basically, all the things we saw in the early days of Google
Maps and in-car GPS units.

Apple's new Maps will also lack Google's Street View feature,
something many
users will undoubtedly miss. It also won't include
built-in transit directions. It will, however, in its initial
version direct you to third-party apps that do provide public
transit information. Andy Baio posits that including accurate, up-to-date
transit directions "was presumably too difficult to attempt for
this first release."

So, with all these downsides, why would Apple take the chance to
develop its own mapping solution? Is Google really such a
threatening competitor that the two companies can't find common
ground in mapping?

"Maps are an integral piece of functionality for a mobile
device," Blau said. "Google's just not going to be able to provide
that for Apple given the level of competition between them." Thus,
Maps in iOS 6 won't just replace Google Maps -- it will appear
throughout the operating system in new, novel ways.

Forrester analyst Thomas Husson echoed the importance of, and
trend toward, stronger maps integration in mobile devices.
"Location-based services go way beyond just maps and turn-by-turn
navigation," Husson told Wired via email. "Location is no longer a
service per se, like maps or navigation, but is increasingly an
enabler of new product experiences."

Maps integration with Siri is one example of this, as is iOS 6′s
more robust local search feature, which allows you to get
information on more than 100 million business listings. Google only
has 80 million listings. Apple can also finally include features
like turn-by-turn navigation and 360 views of metropolitan areas
with Flyover.

"Apple wants to guarantee a good experience for its users by
having a good product," Blau said. "They may have to rely on
partners like Yelp and TomTom, but it's only to the point where
they get to control the experience."

Comments

This is one of Apples worst ventures.

Darren

Jun 18th 2012

An unbelievably bad move by Apple, and yet another reason to wall oneself in their exclusive garden. No transit directions, thus far. Even walking and driving instructions are not as good as Google's. The lack of an alternative to Streetview is an obvious fail, though even for Google this is not available everywhere. And location is a big case in point. The suggestions being talked about is that Apple intends to use Yelp for reviews. Google has built up an extensive reviews listings for venues all over the world through Google Places, and its upgraded Google+ Local. However Yelp only covers Canada, the US and a handful of European countries. If lacking these things which are integral to Google Maps, iPhone users in China will find themselves lost without excellent transit directions, unable to find a cafe, bar or restaurant, and unable to star an item on their PC to see it syncing with their mobile device, even if offline. The screengrabs seen so far also seem to point to an app which has far less information and data than Google's offering.

tvnewswatch

Jun 18th 2012

In reply to tvnewswatch

"and unable to star an item on their PC to see it syncing with their mobile device," For both Mac and Windows, you can sync everything between your computers and iOS devices, as long as you use Safari!

Siasy

Jul 7th 2012

I think Apple has made a great move getting TomTom into the deal, it saved them a lot of time reinventing the wheel.

Dennis

Jun 19th 2012

Who cares about the US? TomTom is great in the UK so I welcome the move

Mark

Jun 19th 2012

What frustrates me about this industry is that when it comes to making decisions, usually business leaders use these criteria: (1) ego, (2) rivalries, (3) OUR customers. What I see missing from the list is a priority on general consumers...or better said, humanity. I am not trying to sound altruistic here...I mean, why can't a company say, "let's do what we do best and then outsource the rest"? Is Google best at search? Yes. So why can't Microsoft ditch Bing and use Google and integrate that into their Windows Phone OS? Is Apple best at Music? Yes...so use that. Is MS best at Office? Yes, so Google should drop Google docs and let us all use Office.

Now that is a bit idealistic, I realize, and maybe there is something to be said for giving people options and letting them choose. So is it really so bad if consumers can decide whether to use Bing or Google? No. Who really cares right?

BUT this is where I am going to be firm and point out something that is no less than a tragic injustice: Apple will ban the Google Maps (and Navigation) app from the App Store when iOS 6 is released?!? Is that doing what is best for their customers? No way! And then they will toss their users a bone and force them to use an inferior product (for years) until they work out all the bugs? That is lame. I mean, talk about abusing the loyalty of your customers. I am stunned. Apple fans will mostly shake it off and still defend Apple against even this criticism, but from a customer service perspective, this is a bad move by Apple, IMHO.

Think about when Apple bans Google search from the iDevices due to starting their own search engine. That will take years for them to get up to the level of Google's expertise. Think of all the years of iFrustration from users. Oh well, the iFaithful will stand by Apple...and in the end, maybe they will feel that they are somehow part of the penultimate product as they have suffered through all the years of beta testing!

JayZed

Jun 20th 2012

What frustrates me about this industry is that when it comes to making decisions, usually business leaders use these criteria: (1) ego, (2) rivalries, (3) OUR customers. What I see missing from the list is a priority on general consumers...or better said, humanity. I am not trying to sound altruistic here...I mean, why can't a company say, "let's do what we do best and then outsource the rest"? Is Google best at search? Yes. So why can't Microsoft ditch Bing and use Google and integrate that into their Windows Phone OS? Is Apple best at Music? Yes...so use that. Is MS best at Office? Yes, so Google should drop Google docs and let us all use Office.

Now that is a bit idealistic, I realize, and maybe there is something to be said for giving people options and letting them choose. So is it really so bad if consumers can decide whether to use Bing or Google? No. Who really cares right?

BUT this is where I am going to be firm and point out something that is no less than a tragic injustice: Apple will ban the Google Maps (and Navigation) app from the App Store when iOS 6 is released?!? Is that doing what is best for their customers? No way! And then they will toss their users a bone and force them to use an inferior product (for years) until they work out all the bugs? That is lame. I mean, talk about abusing the loyalty of your customers. I am stunned. Apple fans will mostly shake it off and still defend Apple against even this criticism, but from a customer service perspective, this is a bad move by Apple, IMHO.

Think about when Apple bans Google search from the iDevices due to starting their own search engine. That will take years for them to get up to the level of Google's expertise. Think of all the years of iFrustration from users. Oh well, the iFaithful will stand by Apple...and in the end, maybe they will feel that they are somehow part of the penultimate product as they have suffered through all the years of beta testing!